"A Galileo could no more be elected president of the United States than he could be elected Pope of Rome. Both high posts are reserved for men favored by God with an extraordinary genius for swathing the bitter facts of life in bandages of self-illusion." ~ H.L. Mencken

The Loopy Dynamics of Feedback

For every action (force) in nature, there is an equal and opposite reaction; this is Newton 's Third Law of Motion. We have let the feedback loop in society get seriously out of whack.

As humans, each of us is an individual actor. The actions we take cause reactions. We must deal with them. It's the nature of reality. One learns early in life that poking a hornet's nest with a stick is not a good idea. This is not a difficult concept, it would seem. But then, what seems is often far from what is.

Take, for instance, the idea that it is perfectly legal for you to be shot for not buying a tag for your dog. Sounds extreme, doesn't it? But it is the standard practice almost anywhere in the United States where dog licensure is mandated. (What kind of word is that: "mandated"? What kind of people would create and use and accept such a word?)

Here is how it works. Some people got together and decided that they wanted you to have a license on your dog. They were probably afraid something bad might happen and thought they could control their world against such possibility. They may have asked your opinion about this idea but they probably did not. Most likely they just decided what they wanted to do, wrote it down, and called it a law. They probably published it somewhere and this made them think that their idea was now somehow or other applicable to you, regardless of what you and your dog thought about the whole matter. ("Stroke of the pen, law of the land. Pretty cool!" ' President Clinton's aide, Paul Begala) As Marc Stevens has so aptly described it, 'law' is nothing more than opinion backed by force.

If you are any kind of self-respecting individual, you probably would say to yourself, "What utter foolishness these pompous asses have written. I am certainly not going to pay any attention to the insane ramblings of such lunatics," and would go on about the business of your life. But let us suppose that your small-minded neighbor gets it in her mind that you are not subservient enough to the ideas of tyranny and she calls the petty bureaucrat in charge of doggy (and owner) subjugation. The cops come out and tell you that there are some opinions that someone somewhere wrote down on a piece of paper that say that you are supposed to number your doggie friend. If you, as I hope you would, tell these fools-in-costume that you have no intention whatsoever of putting a number on your dog and furthermore would they please get-the-hell-out-of-your-yard-and-face before you get pissed off . . . well, it might get ugly. And when you continue to assert your choice to be left alone to peaceably life your life with your un-numbered canine companion, who is also peaceably minding his or her own business, the cops are going to get unruly and pull their guns on you demanding that you hand over the dog, at the very least. If you then pull out your Glock in an attempt to prevent the kidnapping of said peaceful canine companion, all hell will break loose and you and your dog will be riddled with more bullets than would be needed to take over some small countries.

You could avoid this, of course, by doing what they say in the first place. But keep in mind what the reality is. These people, and probably most of your neighbors as well (otherwise it never could have gotten this far), believe that it is acceptable to shoot you if you refuse to follow their stupid idea that your dog should have a number mechanically attached to his body at all times (or whatever other silly things someone decided to write down on paper somewhere). It's not like you or the dog have threatened anyone and there is cause for their actions. No. It's just an idea they had that they thought would be nice for you to obey. (Need I point out that you are similarly numbered and catalogued? And that the reality is that this is about you, and not about your dog?)

Know why? Because they can. Know why? Because somehow or other the great ideasphere has gotten this idea that there are some people who are not responsible for their actions.

Think about it. If your nosy neighbor had come over demanding that you attach a device to your pet, and you told her exactly where she could shove her idea and device, and then she shot you--she would go away for a long, long time. It would be in the daily fishwrappers and on the viewscreen and everyone would be talking about it. On the other hand, if you defend yourself against such an unwarranted intrusion into your life by armed thugs in costumes (or not!), demanding exactly the same thing, you will be shot--and everyone will comment what a dangerous person you were, and how good it is that you are no longer alive to endanger the neighborhood. Your killers will get a few days paid vacation and then will have to go back to work being thugs for hire. With no responsibility for their actions. (Lon Horiuchi, who shot and killed Vicki Weaver and her baby in cold blood, got a medal! He then went on to be a part of the team at Waco , Texas who burned to death 80 "Branch Davidian" men, women and children. Yay team! Hip Hip Hooray! This was for the failure to pay some fees on fully voluntary and legal gun sales. I'm unaware if any dog tags were involved.)

Oh, but they're not thugs, some may say. Well think about this: If a warrant for your arrest is made, and you attempt to resist--you attempt to prevent the intrusion into your life by armed thugs--you can and very likely will be shot, regardless of the underlying cause. It could be something as simple as an unpaid parking ticket, or the failure to license your dog. The cops don't care.

They are only hired thugs whose job is enforcement of the petty dictates of others. They will kill you over a parking ticket. They are currently called law enforcement officers, after all; we no longer appear to have peace officers. They are not responsible for assuring that their actions are appropriate to the level of crime alleged. Nope, failure to bow to their commands is punishable by death. That is the bottom line. It is not about justice, it is about control.

In any rational reality there would be some kind of reciprocity between the actions of humans in relations with each other. Somewhere along the line there arose the idea of 'sovereign immunity.' And even though we realized a couple of centuries ago that the idea of "sovereigns" having power over others is really, really stupid, we still think it is all right for hired thugs to be completely devoid of any responsibility for their actions. Amazing.

Think about the surly "public servant" that you frequently encounter at the DMV or the TSA , or any of a myriad of other "public" offices. Do you know why they act as they do? Because they know that they have your life literally in their hands. That is absolute power. Oh, but I exaggerate, you may exclaim. Nope. Think about it. These people know that it is within their power to create a living hell for you if you don't acquiesce to their little dictates. They know that they will bear no repercussions for their actions. They KNOW that others with guns will enforce their will upon you if you do not kowtow.

People have died in holding pens because they didn't kowtow to the TSA and similar dynasties. And you know what? No one was put in jail for these murders. The clerk at the DMV knows that if you don't play his or her game, you will end up on the side of the road looking down the barrel of a "service" weapon. You don't see clerks at Nordstrom's or Wal-Mart providing this level of service, do you?

If you drove a taxi, and your potential customer refused to allow you to strip search and fondle him or her prior to your accepting them as a fare, and you locked them up in a room and they died, you would go to jail for that. Deservedly. And for a long time. TSA agents? Not so much. (as Jon Stewart is wont to say.)

The idea that anyone is not responsible for his actions is a license to kill. A civilized society cannot exist with such an idea. Actions have consequences. It may appear that they don't. It may appear that individuals parading as cops are above the law. They're not. They, too, are just people. What is happening is that the scale is becoming severely out of balance. Just as it has taken almost 100 years since the creation of fraudulent "money" by the Federal Reserve Banks for the united States economy to collapse, so too it will be with petty tyrants. Remember Rome? Or the Soviet Union ?

For every action, an equal and opposite reaction. We need to take this seriously before the scale is so far out of balance that only the total destruction of society can right it. At least, if you want to live in a civilized society where you get as good as you give, and you need not fear those who believe they can do anything for they are "above" the law. Each of us creates this reality by believing it. If you believe that others are superior to you and that they have the right to control you, then you make that real. These tyrants only exist because you and I allow them to.

Think about this. Is this the kind of world you want to pass on to your children? It really is up to each one of us. We each must understand that it is not acceptable civilized behavior for some people to tell others how to run their, our, lives. We have no one to blame but ourselves. Do not go gently into tyranny.

This is our world. These are our lives. Let's remember that and start to act as though our lives matter. They do.

There is no "authority." It is your life, not someone else's.

I bid you peace and love.

References you may want to pursue:

Marc Stevens has written a great book called Adventures in Legal Land which is available at his site along with articles, discussions and a weekly radio program called 'The No-State Project' Saturdays on We The People Radio Network.

Ian and Marc host a wonderful thought provoking radio talk show where you can call in about literally anything, but where the ideas of liberty predominate: Free Talk Live